


The Stupid Mermaid

by kattahj



Category: X-Men (Movies), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Fairy Tales, Gen, Left Turn at Westchester, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-03-24
Updated: 2005-03-24
Packaged: 2017-11-08 15:22:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/444618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kattahj/pseuds/kattahj
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marrow tells a story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Stupid Mermaid

**Author's Note:**

> Based on characters and situations from the X-men movie RPG Left Turn at Westchester.

"Where's Flora?" asked Molly, climbing up into the couch and squeezing herself in between Brannon and Theresa. "I want my story."

"She went to the bathroom," said Theresa.

"But I want my *story*!"

"I can tell you a story."

Molly pouted. "I don't like your stories."

"Then you'll just have to wait."

Molly opened her mouth as if about to scream, but closed it again, tilting her head a little to look at Marrow, who sat on the floor near the wall looking in a magazine.

"Do you know any stories?"

"Molly!"

Marrow looked up. She hadn't realised Molly was talking to her at first, because most of the time the little kids avoided her if they could. But the panicked tone in Theresa's voice was unmistakable. At first, she contemplated telling the little brat to go shove it, but then she changed her mind. These kids needed a life lesson from someone who didn't have her head up in the clouds, and Molly's looks reminded her of a story Maria had told her once.

"Yeah, okay, I'll tell you one," she said, ignoring the startled looks that brought her. "So. There was this girl..."

"You have to say 'once upon a time'."

Marrow rolled her eyes. "Fine. Whatever. Once upon a time there was this girl, and she was a mermaid. That means she had a fish tail instead of legs. Anyway. She was living with a whole bunch of other mermaids in the middle of the ocean, and they were all happy, because they were so deep down and so far away that no human could ever get to them. Except this girl, she was so curious she kept swimming up to the surface and away to the shore to take a look at the human world. And the more she looked, the more she wanted to live there."

"I know this one," Molly said, but she didn't seem displeased with the thought of hearing it again. On the contrary, she leaned back and stuck her thumb in her mouth.

"It didn't help how many times her friends tried to get her away, she just kept coming back," Marrow continued, ignoring the interruption. "And one day she saw a guy on the beach, and that did it. She was determined to get up and marry that guy. So she went to an old mermaid who could do all sort of things if you gave her the right stuff. And she said that she'd have to take the girl's tongue, and the girl said yes. And then she said that if she'd split her tail into legs those legs would hurt like hell forever, but the girl *still* said yes, because she was just that fucking desperate to be human."

"You said fucking!" squeed Molly.

"Yeah, I did. Do you want to hear the story or not? The old mermaid turned the girl into a human and put her at the shore. So naturally, she goes find this guy, only it turned out he's going to marry someone else. Now, he didn't mind the mermaid girl, since she wasn't a mermaid anymore and he couldn't tell that she ever was, but he didn't like her as much as the other girl either. But the mermaid girl just couldn't get over him. She wanted so bad to live in the human world, but she was starting to get sick. Like, *really* sick."

Molly frowned. "I don't remember this part."

"So her friends went to the old mermaid and asked for her to help them get the girl back. And they gave her their hair, and in return she gave them a knife, and the ability to go to the human world just once."

Someone was entering the room. Turning her head, Marrow could see that it was Flora, but since the kids still seemed interested she kept talking anyway. "So they went up to the surface and gave the girl the knife, and told her that if she ever wanted to go back she'd have to kill the guy. If she didn't, the next morning he'd marry that other woman and she'd be dead. Only she wouldn't do it. She was so hung up on him and the human world that she'd rather die than go back. So her friends went back home, and in the morning the guy married the other woman, just like the old mermaid said, and the girl died. Because she couldn't live in the human world and she wouldn't live in her own."

Molly frowned as if Marrow had just said something much more offensive than 'fuck'. "That's not how it ends. They fight the evil witch who pretended to be the prince's bride, and then the prince and the mermaid get married."

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

"Language, Marrow," Flora said, stepping forward. "And Molly, I believe Marrow was telling a slightly older version of the story, perhaps," and now she was looking straight at Marrow, "intended for slightly older children."

"I tell it as I see it."

"Yes," said Flora with the tiniest sigh. "I'm well aware of that."


End file.
